Gov. Rick Scott: Investing in education makes the most of taxpayers' dollars

April 17, 2012|By Rick Scott | Guest columnist

Ask just about anyone with a television or Internet access to name my top priority for Florida, and almost invariably you'll hear: It's to create jobs and turn our state economy around.

Just 18 months ago, I was campaigning nonstop around Florida, promoting my 7-7-7 Plan to fix our state. Even now, despite a months-long streak of ever-improving employment and job-creation data since I took office, many Floridians are still hurting and need to see immediate, continuous improvement.

That's why, just last month, with the help of the Florida Legislature, I signed into law my 2012 Job Creation and Economic Development Package, designed to reduce regulations, cut taxes and turn our state's unemployment system into a re-employment system.

But I also spent a lot of time this past year listening to students, teachers and parents to find out what they needed to improve education in our state. I went straight to the source and traveled to elementary, middle and high schools around the state.

That is why I made $1 billion in new education funding a top priority this past legislative session, and thanks to the leadership of Senate President Mike Haridopolos and House Speaker Dean Cannon, I will sign a budget today that provides $1.06 billion in new funding to K-12 schools.

The money will be used to enhance reading programs, reward good teachers, cover a funding gap due to the influx of 31,000 new students this year, and offset funding gaps related to lower property taxes.

Making ends meet in the face of a $1.2 billion budget shortfall this year, on top of an even larger, $3.7 billion shortfall from last year was not an easy task, while still finding a way to pour more than a billion additional dollars into our schools.

But because education is the key to Florida's long-term prosperity, our legislative leaders worked with me to find a way to pass this important component of my budget.

Right now, we must do all we can — as quickly as we can — to reverse the job losses and housing crisis that swamped our state over the previous four years.

But we must also look over the horizon, by spending the money it takes now to make Florida one of the most attractive labor markets in the nation. We accomplish this by investing in high-quality education, raising education standards and rewarding good teachers and the quality student outcomes they consistently produce.

Just last week, I had the opportunity to visit Evans High School, an Orange County public school, in addition to several other schools around the state, to see first-hand how investing in education will benefit our students.

At Evans High School, I observed English, world history, geometry, biology and algebra II classes, and I enjoyed interacting with students in the school's Academy of Information Technology, which has a large emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math subjects. I was even interviewed by the school's television-production students.

My job as governor is to decide the best way to invest taxpayer dollars to maximize the return for all Floridians and to ensure future generations of Floridians, like the students at Evans High, have the opportunity to succeed in a state that has invested in their future.

How best do we spend the money to provide our future work force with the skills needed to compete in a competitive, worldwide labor market?

Education is the obvious answer. Education works. Education prepares all of us with the important skill sets we need to succeed. Education also anticipates trends and marketplace demands for advanced skills and prepares students to meet those challenges head on.

Florida must make it our top priority to be ready to compete.

That is why, no matter what other challenges we face, I will not stop pushing to improve education in our state.